World Football Thread IX - Weltmeisterschaft Ausgabe

[DanS]

Argentina plays almost... lacsidasically. But they always seem in good position. Is the Argentine game known as particularly sound technically?

Educate DanS.

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
[S]ome of their players have played at a high level in the English game (York, Hislop).

Hislop never played for York!

That was a great game, and exactly the kind of unexpected entertainment that the World Cup brings us (every one in four) year(s) after year.

I love the World Cup - even ironing isn't so bad if you can watch entertaining footie while you're doing it.

[OzzyKP]

Heh, there is an Australian rules football game on (or is it rugby?) on tv, but no World Cup. Oh well.

I guess its too late for games now anyways, but I bet it'll be tough to find any games. Especially since I don't have cable.

[Spiffor]

It's too bad I won't be seeing Angola - Portugal tomorrow. This is one of the games I'd anticipate the most, along with France-Côte d'Ivoire, France-England, and USA-Iran

Go Angola!

[Hueij]

Okay....

DoY please please please never use the word footie again. Please. Never. Please...

On Sweden... They were playing against 10 men and still kept their 5 men defense??? Against some unknown Caribian island? One more to scratch from my list.

[CerberusIV]

Well, we've had 5 matches and the first casualty seems to be the credibility of the refereeing. All that talk about consistency and cracking down on various bad behaviour (like diving!) is shown to have been just hot air.

As for the American commentators, everyone who gets those Budweiser sponsors clips either side of the commercial breaks does realise they are joking - aren't they? (My favourite was commentator A asking commentator B what he thought of the diving and B replying "I thought we were watching football". Funny because it was just before the Argentina - Ivory Coast kick-off).

[Colonâ„¢]

For Dan:

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Pricey showcase soccer stadiums now in dire financial straits

By AKEMI NAKAMURA
Staff writer

Thousands of excited soccer fans flocked to Miyagi Stadium in Rifu, Miyagi Prefecture, in 2002 to watch World Cup games. But now, as the latest tournament gets under way in Germany, the world-class facility is struggling to fill its seats.

The number of visitors to the 49,000-seat stadium -- part of the Grande 21 sports park built for 27 billion yen in 2000 -- was 177,181 in fiscal 2005, compared with 277,000 in fiscal 2002, according to the prefecture.

The sports park, which also has a pool and gymnasium, had a revenue of only 130 million yen in fiscal 2004, and taxpayers had to cover 700 million yen in losses to maintain the facilities.

Miyagi is not the only government with stadium problems.

To host the 2002 World Cup games jointly with South Korea, Miyagi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Niigata, Shizuoka and Oita prefectures, and the cities of Sapporo, Yokohama, Osaka and Kobe renovated or built new soccer stadiums, at a cost of between 25 billion yen and 60 billion yen each.

Many of those stadiums now have financial problems.

"We've started working on ways to reduce the costs of operating the stadium" and other sports facilities in Grande 21, said Hiroyuki Uematsu, a spokesman for Miyagi's sports section.

In April, the prefecture began outsourcing the operation of the facilities to a consortium of two private companies and a prefectural foundation that promotes sports.

The private sector provides the business expertise and ideas on how to be more efficient in running the facility.

The prefecture plans to reduce operating costs at Grande 21 to 600 million yen in fiscal 2006 from 830 million yen in fiscal 2004, Uematsu said.

Yokohama sold the naming rights to its 72,000-seat soccer stadium to Nissan Motor Co. in March 2005.

Under the five-year contract between the city and the automaker, Nissan will pay 470 million yen a year to the city to have its name on the building.

The money to call the facility Nissan Stadium will help alleviate the city's financial woes. Yokohama spent 736 million yen to operate the stadium in fiscal 2004.

However, Yoshiyuki Mano, of Waseda University's Research Institute for Sports Business, said that depending on money from naming rights is not a healthy way to increase revenue for a soccer stadium. Other revenue sources will be needed when the contracts expire.

"Making a profit from a soccer stadium is basically difficult because fields are only available for a limited time," he said. Natural grass fields are usually available for only 100 days a year to keep the ground in optimal playing condition.

Sapporo and Kobe have succeeded in keeping their stadiums in the black because they tapped the private sector in the beginning, Mano said. Both cities built the facilities, but gave them over to private firms to run.

Sapporo "holds 55 percent in the company's stake, but we pursue profitability, unlike a public body," said Satoshi Wakai, spokesman for Sapporo Dome Co., which operates the dome.

He said the firm's employees, most of whom had experience working at other companies, try to come up with ideas to draw more people.

The 42.2 billion yen stadium was designed to be multipurpose, with natural turf that is moved out of the facility when there are no games.

Thanks to this design, Sapporo Dome now hosts the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. The pro baseball team added the prefecture moniker when it exited Tokyo Dome in 2004.

The annual number of visitors to the stadium has increased to more than 2 million from 1.8 million in fiscal 2003.

Kobe Wing Stadium has a number of different facilities, including accommodations, conference rooms and a fitness club, which attract a wider range of customers.

Governments with costly stadiums that are sinking into the red can still make changes, Waseda University's Mano said.

Other sports, including rugby and American football, can be solicited, and luxury suites can be created for companies to entertain clients at sports events.

"I think stadium operators should try to attract not only soccer fans but also as many residents as possible at least once a year," Mano said. "If people don't use the stadiums, they will turn a critical eye to those suffering losses."
The Japan Times
(C) All rights reserved

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060610f2.html

[Zoid]

Originally posted by SpencerH


I think the Swedes looked pretty good actually for the first game and were unlucky not to win (but then I also think England were unlucky (due to unbelievably biased ref-ing) not to score more). It's probably the best balanced Swedish team I've seen.

Yes, we looked pretty good. But there´s no prize for best looking looser

[DanS]

The number of visitors to the 49,000-seat stadium -- part of the Grande 21 sports park built for 27 billion yen in 2000 -- was 177,181 in fiscal 2005

Wow, that's not a lot of spectators.

Interesting cost numbers in there. The scale for the World Cup that I propose probably would not be a good idea for Japan. I'm sure that the WC '02 spectators spent a fortune in Japan, on the other hand. Also, perhaps there were successful cases of viable stadiums that weren't mentioned in the article.

[Kropotkin]

Originally posted by Ennet
Oh, and about Allbäck, i think i missed four or five chances (3 shots) but concidering the small amount of time he played and that he really isnt a forward but a middlefielder somewhat lessens it.

Allbäck is not a midfielder. He's a box-playing, offsidelurking forward if there ever was one.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

hé spiff

et un, et deux, et trois zé-ro

[Lawrence of Arabia]

le 13 juin 2006 à stuttgart, on a un rendevous avec le destin.

[reds4ever]

BTW what does the thread title say?

[Zoid]

World Championship Issue IIRC

[Kropotkin]

or World Championship edition...

Anyhow, Robben is red hot (or at least orange)! Good solid play from Holland in the first half.